Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Magnus #1 | 2017 | Chuck Wendig | Buy |
| 2 | Magnus #2 | 2017 | Chuck Wendig | N/A |
| 3 | Magnus #3 | 2017 | Chuck Wendig | Buy |
| 4 | Magnus #4 | 2017 | Chuck Wendig | N/A |
| 5 | Magnus #5 | 2017 | Chuck Wendig | N/A |
Chuck Wendig’s take on Magnus for Dynamite Entertainment in 2017 was a deliberate departure from the character’s roots. The original Magnus, Robot Fighter was created by Russ Manning in 1963 as a muscular hero who smashed rogue robots with his bare hands. Wendig flipped that concept by making Magnus a robot psychologist, someone who talks to malfunctioning AI and tries to figure out why they went wrong.
The five-issue series is set in a future where robots handle most of society’s labor and infrastructure. When robots start behaving erratically, Magnus is called in to evaluate them. The story raises questions about what constitutes consciousness, whether machines can truly malfunction or if they are making choices, and what happens when the line between tool and person gets blurry.
This run was part of Dynamite’s broader relaunch of Gold Key properties, alongside Wendig’s Turok series and The Sovereigns crossover. All three came out in 2017 and share a connected universe.